On Piracy

Many say that we should execute Somali Pirates on site, set them asail without oars, take their food and water then set them adrift, or shoot their skiffs from under them, thus turning them into Somali-shark snacks.

Then we too would become barbarians. Piracy is an issue born of poverty, and the stronger nation's fishing fleets illegally encroaching onto Somali waters, without payment or consequence.

To be clear, I want it stopped. I also have little empathy for some criminal with an AK forcing his will, because of his self-serving needs onto someone else. But I cannot condone summary execution without due process, or murder by circumstance-that is to say, setting them afloat without oars or water as some have suggested.

I would choose arrest and long sentences that remove the pirate/opportunist from the mix. Perhaps 20 years from now, Somalia might have managed to grow some form of government.

It is an instinct ingrained in our DNA, to survive and see that our children can eat. Example; if you have a group of poor and hungry people congregated near an area where food is transported daily, someone will eventually organize a raiding party and knock off a truck or two. Heck, the Mafia does it every day, and one cannot argue that they are poor or hungry (just look at the guts on those guys). Yet I hear no clamor to shoot them on sight, or to force them to run across 8 lane highways.

The French Revolution was incited by people that were hungry, and an entire government fell. Governments have fought over food and other resources since, forever, and will continue to do so. We will soon see wars over water.

My point is that people, states, and countries, will attempt to take what they must have, if negotiation isn't an option. It is incumbent upon civilized society to not respond in-kind to barbarous behavior, but rather to act in a firm, but morally justifiable manner.